Expert evidence

When New Labour was call for 90 days detention without trial, broken bones heal in 42 to 56 days by the way, his constant refrain was that the police wanted it, so he had to give it to them. Likewise on ID Cards one of the major arguments is that they will help prevent terrorism, being such a great help against the Madrid bombing ... not. With this in mind littorally found a little quote by someone that really should know about security, Stella Rimmington, former head of MI5. According to her

"ID cards have possibly some purpose.

"But I don't think that anybody in the intelligence services, particularly in my former service, would be pressing for ID cards.

"My angle on ID cards is that they may be of some use but only if they can be made unforgeable - and all our other documentation is quite easy to forge.

"If we have ID cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless.

"ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don't think they are necessarily going to make us any safer."